Perez Knowles

I had a conversation with a Power 4 college coach who’s been doing this for 25+ years. We were talking about the mentality of high school players during the recruiting process. Here’s what he told me: “What these kids don’t realize is… I don’t care how many followers you have. I don’t care how many home runs you hit in travel ball. I don’t care how many offers you have. I don’t care about your ranking. I don’t care how hard you can hit a ball. I don’t care about your metrics. The only thing I care about is this: Are you going to produce in between those white lines when we play this season?” Then he said something else that hit: “They’ve been so protected that the first time they fail, they quit… or they transfer.” And here’s the part that matters. The biggest development mistake I see? Players don’t plan for failure. They plan for success. They visualize success. They expect success. But they don’t prepare for 0-4. They don’t prepare for getting booed. They don’t prepare for sitting the bench. They don’t prepare for struggling for 3 weeks. So when it happens — and it will — they panic. Instead of executing a pre-made plan, they try to create one while emotional. That never works. Failure is coming. The question is: Did you already decide how you’re going to handle it?